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When Chen Ping'an returned to his house in Clay Vase Alley, he saw the little girl in pink holding a broom and sweeping the courtyard. Meanwhile, the little boy in azure was leaning over the small water vat with his mouth wide open and facing the surface of the water. There was still half a meter between his mouth and the water, yet there was a small column of water flowing up from the water vat and into his mouth. It was as if he were a dragon drawing water from a well.
Chen Ping'an sat down on the door threshold. The little girl in pink noticed that he was slightly lost in thought, so she considerately didn't say anything to disturb him. In fact, the courtyard had already been cleaned spotless by Ruan Xiu quite a while ago. However, the little girl in pink would always feel uneasy if she wasn't doing something to help. She would feel like she didn't deserve the snake gall pebbles that her master had so generously given her.
Chen Ping'an's mind was wandering in some place very far away, and he suddenly recalled Cui Dongshan's comments regarding Song Jixin. He stood up and retrieved the set of keys that Song Jixin had secretly tossed into his courtyard when leaving the small town. He then ran next door and opened the gate to his neighbor's courtyard. Sure enough, he saw three books stacked on the table in the study after entering Song Jixin's house. They were 'Principles of Life for Children', 'Rites and Music', and 'An Anthology of Literary Essays'.
Chen Ping'an carried a chair over and started to flip through 'Principles of Life for Children'.
During Chen Ping'an's trip back to the small town from Great Sui Nation, he had been accompanied by Cui Dongshan who would often recite Confucian classics. After listening to these classics for a while, Chen Ping'an discovered that 'Principles of Life for Children' wasn't simple at all.
If one were to look at the title of the book only, perhaps one would feel that it only talked about very shallow principles.
However, during his casual conversations with Cui Dongshan, he had learned that teachers in ordinary schools most definitely wouldn't use 'Principles of Life for Children' as a textbook for children. Perhaps Mr. Qi was the only person who could explain this profound and obscure Confucian classic in such a simple and easily understandable manner. Because of this, Li Baoping and the others had never felt like this book was too difficult or profound to understand.
Chen Ping'an didn't plan to take the three books back home with him. After reading a dozen or so pages of 'Principles of Life for Children', he felt like he couldn't even gain an elementary understanding...
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